New clinic will offer vital dental services to low-income families

Winchester — Uninsured children with teeth full of rot will soon get the relief they need from a new downtown dental clinic.

“New” is relative, though — the clinic will operate in the same space as the Free Medical Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley at 301 North Cameron St.

Because the free clinic cannot receive financial compensation under Virginia by-laws, a separate nonprofit called the Dental Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley was created so that the dental clinic could receive Medicaid.

The dental facility will begin examining patients from Winchester, Frederick County, and Clarke County at the end of September.

The dental clinic’s ability to accept Medicaid will provide sustainable funding for services previously unavailable to most uninsured families in the area, said Vicki McClelland, executive director of both the Free Medical Clinic and the new dental clinic.

Previously, low-income individuals with severe pain could find help only on Thursday nights at the Free Medical Clinic. Volunteer staffing was limited, and even emergency cases needed to be scheduled in advance.

The new dental clinic will alleviate some of the backlog, allowing dentists to serve “true emergency cases” more easily, McClelland said.

Most private dentists don’t accept Medicaid or FAMIS — Virginia’s health insurance program for children — because of low reimbursement.

The need for the Dental Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley has gone unanswered for years in area, McClelland said.

She called the existing situation a “crisis” for local uninsured, low-income families who have been unable to find their children a dentist who accepts Medicaid.

The majority of these families have seen dental care as a luxury that simply wasn’t available to them when rent and food bills were due.

“People are falling through the cracks,” McClelland said. “They’re desperate. Even when parents are educated in preventive dental care, if they don’t have access to it, they’re going to go without.”

Soon, dental services at the Free Medical Clinic will be offered five days a week instead of one, and the dental clinic will be able to serve 100 people each week instead of eight.

About 2,000 adults and children will be served by the dental clinic at one time or another during the year, McClelland said.

It will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a capacity for about 5,000 total visits per year.

A full-time dentist, two dental assistants, and an office manager will operate the facility Monday through Thursday, treating as many as 10 children and six adults per day. Volunteer dentists will staff the clinic on Fridays.

The dentists will perform preventive dentistry such as teeth cleaning, fluoride application, sealants, oral hygiene, and nutritional counseling, as well as restorative dentistry such as fillings and extractions.

The clinic will not provide dentures or partials, crown or bridge work, braces, or extensive oral surgery.

For the foreseeable future, volunteers will continue to treat adult patients Thursday evenings at the Free Medical Clinic’s Acute Dental Clinic. The “Keep That Smile” clinic will still operate on Fridays.

Dr. Alfred Phillips, 77, has volunteered at the Free Medical Clinic for 12 years. In 2003, he designed the dental space that the new clinic will be using with the vision that it would be “as good as any dental office, if not better.”

And it seems to have worked. The space is sleek and modern, complete with three chairs, a full array of dental equipment, and shiny tile floors.

“Everybody needs quality care,” he said, “regardless of their ability to pay.”

As a volunteer at the Free Medical Clinic, Phillips used to visit schools to examine students’ teeth. “It wasn’t unusual,” he said, “to see 5-, 6-, 7-year-olds with their primary [baby] molars rotted to the gumline.”

“These are kids that have been in pain — they can’t eat, they don’t get to sleep, and consequently that affects school work,” he said.

The Free Medical Clinic started out with a mobile van for dentistry in 1989, but it was discontinued because there wasn’t money to support it.

Before the grand opening of the new dental facility, the clinic’s staff hope to make the space more “children friendly” by bringing in some donated toys, puzzles, hanging mobiles, and a corner play area.

About 60 percent of the clientele will be 18 or younger, McClelland said.

Dr. Richard Taliaferro, chairman of the board for the dental clinic and a Free Medical Clinic volunteer for more than 17 years, said the new dental facility is “something we’ve dreamed about for a long time.”

“And it looks like it’s finally going to become a reality,” he said.

Families with children enrolled in Medicaid, FAMIS, or FAMIS PLUS can call 540-536-1684 for a screening at the Dental Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley.

Adults with an annual income of $12,000 or less for an individual, or $24,000 or less for a family of four, may also be eligible for the dental clinic’s services at a nominal fee.

...www.fmcwinchester.org